Sprinklers have been around for many decades in order to provide for the irrigation of one's soil, land, lawn, etc. Many devices have been devised throughout those decades in order to facilitate said irrigation, and allow us to automate the process and use machines to better control the expulsion of water on soil. Unfortunately, often debris will build up in the nozzle and prevent the effective expulsion of the water out of the nozzle.
Devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,782 (Johnson) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,720,420 (Seifferle) have attempted facilitate the irrigation process by creating self-flushing or coil-enabled sprinklers. Unfortunately, these devices have some drawbacks that need to be overcome.
Seifferle discloses a self-flushing and pressure regulating fitting for an irrigation sprinkler, which is comprised of a spiral spring that biases a sleeve valve against a conical sieve. The sleeve valve remains in a lower position as long as there is no debris in the sieve. If there is debris that accumulates in the sieve area, it forces the spiral spring upwards and water is permitted to be expelled from a flushing opening, until the debris is out of the system and the sieve can return to its normal position thanks to the spring biased downward towards it. While this device is helpful in circumstances where debris is located coming from the main conduit and into the device, it is not helpful in circumstances where debris accumulates in the nozzle. Further, this device is prone to problems if debris remains stuck in the flushing openings, as they will remain open and water will be constantly out therefrom, resulting in the loss of water both through the nozzle in terms of pressure and overall which will prove costly.
Meanwhile, Johnson discloses a pop-up sprinkler system that uses a compression spring that allows a stem of the system to pop out of the ground for irrigation and back into a cylindrical casting. While this compression system allows for a stem to pop in and out of the ground, it does not provide a means to prevent debris from accumulating in the nozzle or even in the packing material area where the device is positioned in the ground.